_By Evan F. Nappen, Attorney at Law (Posted November 19, 2011)
Saiga 12’s, Benelli M4’s and virtually
any other tactical/military shotgun can no longer be banned from import by the
ATF. A little noticed provision tucked into a large appropriations bill obviously
flew under the radar of the “Brady Bunch” and the “Illegal Mayors.” The new law
effectively kills ATF’s plan to stop tactical/military shotgun imports by way
of abusing the “sporting purpose” requirement and their agency rulemaking
powers. The “Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science (CJS) and Transportation/Housing/Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bills”, also
known as the “Mini-Bus”, was passed by Congress, and signed into law by
President Obama on November 18, 2011.
The new law reads as follows:
SEC. 541. None of the funds made
available by this Act may be used to pay the salaries or expenses of personnel
to deny, or fail to act on, an application for the importation of any model of
shotgun if--
(1)all
other requirements of law with respect to the proposed importation are met; and (2)no
application for the importation of such model of shotgun, in the same
configuration, had been denied by the Attorney General prior to January 1,
2011, on the basis that the shotgun was not particularly suitable for or
readily adaptable
This new law became necessary due
to the ATF releasing on January 27, 2011, a “Study
on the Importability of Certain Shotguns.” The “Study” argued “military
shotguns, or shotguns with common military features that are unsuitable for
traditional shotgun sports” should be banned from import into the U.S. The ban
would have applied to all shotguns including semi-autos, pump-actions, double
barrels, etc. As part of the rulemaking process, comments from the public on the
study were allowed to be submitted until May 1, 2011. Many gun owners had
been dreading the ATF’s decision, knowing full well what ATF’s intention was from
the start.